Zen Peninsula Lunch Dim Sum Restaurant Review

Zen Peninsula is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant in Millbrae. Millbrae is ground zero for some of the best Chinese food in the SF Bay area. It has been around since 2004 and specializes in wide selection of Dim Sum for lunch and special dishes for dinner. They have an extensive printed menu that you order on, and a small number of carts, servers serving dim sum. We last visited in May 2012. Zen Peninsula Dinner has a separate review.

This place is a very busy and a super noisy Chinese restaurant on the weekends, with lots of families and friends eating together. Typical decor for a place like this. Lots of flat screen TVs. We arrived on Sunday at Noon, and had to wait only 5 minutes to be seated because we called ahead of time. Weekdays are a lot less busy, but freshness becomes a concern if you come too late. You can easily pick out Chinese Cantonese restaurants, as most have tanks of fresh fish, crustaceans.

This place is one of the few to serve fresh eel from the tank. At $19/lb and approximately 20lbs, this beast costs more than a French Laundry meal!

Zen Peninsula Menu pics (Click to zoom in on any picture)

Website Zen Peninsula Menu – Be sure to try the Top 10 selling items highlighted in Red. Vegetarian items are in Green. Blue items are new additions.

Minced Beef Balls ($2.60) are a combination of beef, egg, cilantro, and other items rolled up and steamed. Zen makes an excellent version of this universal dish, with pretty huge meat balls and a spicy kick to it.

Steamed shrimp dumplings ($4.20) or har gow (4) were decent and possessed a distinctive orangy glow. They were hot out of the kitchen.

Shrimp & chives dumplings ($3.50) were 3 big ones with lots of filling. Not enough shrimp, making this almost like a vegetarian dumpling.

Chiu Chow steam dumplings ($3.50) had 3 large and fragile dumplings possessing a nice balanced flavor of zest and savoriness. They were fresh out of the kitchen and fell apart as we were picking them up.

Egg Rolls ($3.20) or spring rolls are deep-fried delicacies full of chopped vegetables like daikon, meat, and other ingredients wrapped in a egg based wheat wrapper and deep-fried. This one was ordered from the kitchen. Hot, golden brown, perfect.

Pork Buns ($2.60) – 3 small ones to an order. Texture and meat were above average. Ordering during peak busy times ensures freshness.

Suckling pig rice Bowl ($6.50) was a dish we had not encountered before. The pig was awesome. The skin was super crunchy, yet the meat tender and flavorful. It has a ton of fat but, life’s short right? Comes with sweet beans and sugar sides.

Zen’s Roast Pork ($5.50) with a peanut sauce was top notch. Nicely thinly sliced BBQ pork or char siu with a nutty topping.

Egg yolk buns ($3.20) were yellow and had a oily, runny interior. A recent one at Champagne Seafood was far better.

Shanghai style pork dumpling soup ($3.20) were thought to be classic Shanghai dumplings but was a soup with 3 balls of meat in it! Taste and broth was fine, but someone needs to correct this dish.

Crab & pork dumplings ($4.50) are just as bad as the Shanghai dumplings. No soup and thick wrapper.

Zen Peninsula’s service was a little better than average for a place like this. With less carts jamming the aisles, servers were patrolling more often. The breath of items was excellent, more extensive and more inventive than nearby places Hong Kong Flower Lounge, The Kitchen. This high quality dim sum, this is a very good choice for lunch. Asian Pearl Peninsula and Koi Palace better Zen Peninsula’s quality.

Call ahead and get a number, this will reduce your wait time on the weekend. If you do not know what to order, look at our pictures and also consider the top 10 items colored red on the menu. The menu also list a lot of vegetarian items.

5 Comments

[…] it. They also over charged us on the tea charge. The breath of items was very good. Nearby places Zen Peninsula, The Kitchen, and Joy Luck Place offer better food. Hong Kong Flower Lounge, with long waits, and […]

[…] for most requests, but they did refill us and change our plates. While the food is ok, Koi Palace, Zen Peninsula, and Joy Luck Place all have better dim sum. ABC Seafood is located at 768 Barber Lane, Unit 206, […]